Outsourcing Journalism
You know, I’ve come to expect less-than-intelligent moves from the managers of news publications. Despite that, I was still shocked to hear that an Internet-based news publication in Pasadena is outsourcing its reporting jobs. How can you do that, you ask? Well, two reporters in INDIA will be covering the Pasadena city council meetings for pasadenanow.com … via webcam. Yes, these two men are an ocean (and then some) away, and will be writing stories about sewer and street repair in Pasadena.
Per an Associate Press story that circulated earlier in the week (yeah .. I’m late to this party), the editor of Pasadena Now put an ad on Craig’s List that read:
We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA.
He received responses, and hired two reporters. They’ll get up early (their time), watch the council meetings, and write the stories while the editor sleeps half a globe away. The publication is paying the reporters a combined $20,800, which is dirt cheap compared to the cost of paying a reporter in California, but pretty good pay for someone in India.
Now, we’re not talking about the Wall Street Journal here. Pasadena Now is run out of the house of its editor. And, one of the reporters is a graduate of the journalism school at the University of California at Berkeley. With that under consideration, this is still completely and utterly unbelievable … to the point where you want to double check that it’s not a hoax. There is absolutely no way that these two Indian men can possibly cover the issues in a city in which they do not live.
On top of that, as a PR person how the heck do I pitch a story to them? ;)
Perhaps the saddest part of this is that similar, although not as extreme, situations are found all over the United States, thanks to Clear Channel radio. The mega media company has a new plan to cover the news in multiple cities out of one newsroom. For instance, the news in several cities in the Mid-Atlantic region is covered out of Richmond, Virginia’s WRVA Radio. This is nearly as bad as covering Pasadena from India.
At many news outlets, true journalism is on life support, and it just seems to be getting worse.
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[...] Media Relations & SEO PR Blog: Outsourcing Journalism [...]
UPDATE:
Just read a story that Pasadena Now Editor and Publisher James Macpherson has decided to postpone his decision to outsource reporter positions to India. But, it’s not because he’s changed his mind about the decision.
Here’s an excerpt from the story…
Here’s a link to the story on the Editor & Publisher website.
Well… why not? Living in two cities, as I do now, I do not know more about them, than, say, about Pasadena, CA.
Two Indians that were hired will at least have bragging right… Hope they’ll find a high-paying job in India after such an experience:)
I think the difference between the average citizen and a reporter not knowing anything about a city is that the reporter is SUPPOSED to know about the city. You could say that reporters who move to a new city are clueless, but the assumption is that they’ll learn as they go. I don’t think you can “learn on the go” as effectively if you don’t live there.